Multi-screen shopping - useful infographics

I've used a new Google service to produce an infographic (actually 4 separate ones) that outline how the multi-channel shopping experience has changed.

The Third Moment of Truth

In my earlier post this week, I explained what was meant by the traditional marketing model of the First and Second Moments of Truth (FMOT & SMOT). I then went on to cover the more recent concept of the ZMOT or Zero Moment of Truth and how it aligns to older models of: AIDA (Awareness, Influence, Desire and Action). 

In the offline world, the FMOT is typically when the shopper reaches for the product and buys it. This aligns nicely to the online (or Multi-Channel) world, where the user does virtually the same thing by clicking on the product they want, adding it to their digital basket and proceeds through the checkout process. The SMOT is then relatively the same for both channels, with the shopper either taking the item home to experience themselves, of getting it delivered / collected. 

However, I think we also need to consider that (primarily for the online shopper) we should add an additional stage, the Third Moment of Truth… or the TMOT if I’m allowed to continue the series (and not to be confused with ‘The Ministry of Truth’ or ‘The Magic of Television”).  

Consider the situation that is now quite a common problem for eCommerce retailers…

1.  A shopper visits a website, selects a product to purchase (typically one that they wear or needs to fit them in some way) and adds it to their online basket.
2. Because they are not too sure about the exact sizing of the product, or because they are not sure about their own physical dimensions, they order another one in a different size or two.
3. They may also order different colours of the product or other variant in some way… all in an effort to find a single product that is the ‘right’ version or fit.
   Note: It’s also my assumption here that sites who offer ‘free delivery’ and especially ‘free returns’ will suffer from this effect more.
4. After the user has completed their transaction (FMOT) they then await delivery, or in a ‘Click & Collect’ situation they go and get it themselves.
5. The goods arrive at their home and the shopper unwraps or un-boxes their purchases (SMOT).
6. However, they are now left with more than one product, when all they wanted was one thing. So after viewing or trying on these products, what do they do?
   
   They decide which items they are going to return.

It is this moment, when a choice about what gets sent back is made, that I think needs greater consideration and becomes the TMOT, the Third Moment of Truth.

Trust Me On This …   Doh!

Tracking individual users in Google Analytics

Several people have recently asked me if it is possible to use Google Analytics to track and store information on specific individual visitors to their site. Usually the popular analytics package only reports trends and grouped user behaviour, you never get to see the granular detail of each person (e.g. their specific browsing path around the site, etc.). However this can be quite annoying for some marketers who want this information and who have used competitive packages from companies such as WebTrends or Adobe (Omniture) in the past.

If you read the Google Analytics support documentation on Google’s website, you will see in several places there is a reference to NOT using PII (Personally Identifiable Information). This is data that can be used by Google to identify an individual and includes info such as: Name, Address & Email address. However PII can also be a mobile phone’s unique identifier or some other way to recognise a specific device.

There are work-arounds to this restriction (such as using Custom Variables that hold randomly-generated reference for each specific user), but these come very close to violating Google’s End User License Agreement and are definitely not in the spirit of the platform.

So can you upgrade to Google Analytics Premium (the paid-for version of GA) and then start to store important user data? No. The collection of personally identifiable information (PII) is in violation of Google Analytics entire EULA and therefore paying $150k still doesn't let you use the platform as you might have hoped.
Google has therefore been pretty specific in its user agreement (with its new Universal Analytics product also currently having the same restrictions) and even gives the warning that:

Your Google Analytics account could be terminated and your data destroyed if you use any of this information.

However, I have one important point to raise that has been bugging me…

In GA there is the feature to understand your Multi-Channel Funnels. This is lets a site manager understand the interactions between different online media and see how the channels work together to trigger sales. Since this report gives a breakdown of all the multiple digital customer touch-points over the last 30 days… if Google doesn't uniquely identify individuals, how does it know when specific people use each channel and then join them up to create a complete picture of the steps customers take before actually converting?

Improving the multi-channel customer experience

I recently read that that 40% of organisations cite 'complexity' as the greatest barrier to improving multi-channel customer experience (hint: it was here).This may at first seem a large proportion of companies who are struggling to either specify, deliver or improve on their multi-channel efforts... But perhaps its not entirely unexpected for several reasons:

1. Understanding the multi-channel customer IS complex

2. The technology to implement it can also be complex to a marketer or other senior exec who has not grown up with it.

3. There is no senior stakeholder commitment to push forward change. Perhaps why only 28% of companies say there is ownership of the customer experience at board or ‘c- level’ (same source)

Multi-channel shopper marketing

A couple of months ago I write a post about how I saw the discipline of shopper marketing (SM) evolve into digital shopper marketing (DSM) and then into Multi-Channel Shopper Marketing (MCSM).

Now I've had a little while to think about this some more and work with clients on this, I thought I would share some more of my thoughts and observations.

1. Shoppers are now multi-channel
It is not simply the case that online marketing influences online purchases and traditional marketing influences in-store transactions. Online and offline are now just different channels, each potentially contributing to the acquisition and retention of the customer over a range of time.

2. Influence has a huge part to play
The path to purchase starts with initial awareness and continues up to the point that the shopper reaches for the product. In between these two events, there is a wealth of channels, touch-points and devices that the shopper uses to make their purchasing choices. Google calls this the Zero Moment Of Truth (or ZMOT for short) and has produced a number of studies to show just how many information sources a modern multi-channel shopper uses before they commit to a sale.

3. The shopper is getting more savvy
We now live in an age of austerity for most people, where nearly everyone is watching what they spend (in a way, this is the way it always should have been). This translates to a change in shopper behaviour, where they now search around for the best price of brands / commodity products and a lot more now look out for discount codes and promotions. This has a clear effect on eCommerce sites, where a lot more visitors now jump out of the transaction funnel just before they compete the payment process...to look at voucher sites and to hunt down any relevant offers.

In the future I hope to dig into the ways that brands and  retailers can utilise this behaviour and get the maximum benefit from the new ways that multi-channel shoppers act.

Digital Shopper Marketing - the new influence

The world of retail is now multi-channel and customers now shop across a number of different devices, at times of day to suit them and in different ways to how they used to (convenience vs. cost, etc.).

 

The area of Shopper Marketing, which originally looked mainly at things such as the in-store path to purchase has now started to merge with the eCommerce / multi-channel retail and even online marketing. This has formed the relatively new discipline of Digital Shopper Marketing.

Here's my take on this:

1. Brands, by placing themselves between the channels of influence and the point of retail (e.g. the store), can affect the buying decisions of the customer
2. A lot of customers now use the Internet to inform their buying decisions (e.g.recommendation and comparison sites, social media, brand micro-sites, etc.)
3. The digital influence doesn't just happen at home and in-front of a static PC these days. Users search sites at work, they have laptops when on the move, they use tablets in bed and over half of the UK population now has a smartphone.

So how can brands disrupt a consumer and get the maximum affect? Well this depends a lot on what consumers you are targetting, their shopping preferences and the mix of marketing that is required.
For example, a particular segment (let's call them "shopper savvy mums") are more interested in ways to:

• Saving: Using vouchers to make the family budget stretch that little bit further
• Sharing: Commenting and gaining opion via Social Media
• Sampling: Trying new or improved products to optimise spend and overall family well-being

The secret for digital shopper marketing suppliers is to find out what works for their client's target audience. And I''ll leave you to find out how to do this for yoursleves.

The Multi-Channel Consumer & Their Influences To Purchasing

A few days ago I gave a presentation at workshop at Strathclyde University's Business School on the subject of 'The Multi-Channel Consumer & Their Influences To Purchasing'.

I do expect to go into my presentation in more depth over a series of subsequent posts here, but in the meantime I thought I would share it here:

Hayden 26feb2013-final from Hayden Sutherland

Obviously this deck does need a bit of a voice-over to explain what some things mean, but hopefully it should be of some use... Especially to those who attended.

Where does the customer journey begin?

If you're selling either a product or service for even a reasonably sized company, its a good bet that someone has looked at understanding the main customer journey or journeys.

For a multi-channel organisation, selling across several devices and physical presence (store, branch, etc.) it soon becomes clear that the customer journeys are numerous and difficult to map out.

To make matters more complex for those doing this exercise, it soon becomes clear that the path to purchase doesn't start at the last physical or digital touch point... But that the user journey actually starts way back when a customer becomes aware and interested in what's being sold. In other words, the channels that create an understanding and desire for the product or service have an influence on the transaction too.

So the question posed as the title of this posting becomes a very important one to answer... Just how far back into the awareness and influence do you go to fully map your customer journey?

For me there's only one answer... As far as you possibly can! The route down the path to purchase must have started with a first step, with several paces forward being made before the transaction was made . If you can identify these and model them, you can build up a better understanding of what your customer is doing and hopefully influence their decision along the way.

The user experience of user experience

Those who know me, know that I'm passionate about the optimisation of online and multi-channel customer journeys. Right from the early days of my work with the web, I noticed how the digital user experience broke when 'real' people tried to use it.

Over a decade later, everyone has got a lot more savvy about the use of user experience techniques to maximize customer acquisition, engagement, conversion and retention.

However, with all the terms that now exist around this subject, it's no wonder that even the people who are the customers of UX work (e.g. clients) can get a bit confused.

Customer experience, process flows, user stories, user journeys, user-centred design, usability improvement, swim-lanes, conversion rate optimisation, etc. are all terms that a seasoned industry person should be more than familiar with and some are pretty interchangeable. But can we honestly expect the actual users of our services to keep up with whatever the latest name for something is? Furthermore, if we don't actually have sensible, understandable and consistent names for things... how will those who want to purchase these services explain it to their bosses, purchasing terms or even to themselves?

Perhaps the user experience of user experience needs a bit of improving?

Multi-channel retail meets Shopper Marketing

For many of us who come from the digital world, the mere existence of a whole area of retail analysis called Shopper Marketing is a bit a surprise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopper_marketing

And even those like me who are aware... but talk, write or generally think about multi-channel retailing, tend to focus on digital first and in-store second.

But if the statistic in that above Wikipedia article that '70% of brand selections are still made in stores' is to be believed... then online needs to get realistic about the influence it really has at the point of sale. Now I've no actual evidence to contradict this figure, but it does feel a rather high percentage... given that a lot of people will already have made their choice up about the brands they want before they get to the point of purchase.

Over the last few months I've built up my understanding of Shopper Marketing, having worked alongside an agency that specifically does that sort of thing. I actually have to admit I am actually quite impressed with some of the outputs of their work; producing empirical results from their in-store analysis which puts a lot of website testing to shame. For example, heat maps are carried out on different product aisles in various stores from a selection of viewer angles.

In short, digital user experience practitioners could learn a lot from the effort that goes into store planning (where to put products and how customers get to them).

So it does raise the important issue of how these two disciplines come together to:

• Understand the roles that in-store and online now have
• Map the Paths to Purchase (both Digital to Store and Store to Digital)
• Grow customer loyalty and retain existing customers

In short, multi-channel retail / eCommerce and shopper marketing now need to merge into a single area of specialisation... Multi-channel shopper marketing.

Omnichannel? Please spare me the hype!

Hands up, who is getting really hacked off with the word Omnichannel? Me for one!

Used all over the place right now, but especially by marketing and consulting types (Yes, I know I’m both), the word is frequently mentioned to mean “More than multi-channel”.

But stop and think for a second…. What does “multi-channel” actually mean? Well my definition is the same one that most people in the online retail world have… several channels to market. These include: In-store sales, PC website, mobile website, mobile phone app, tablet app, etc.

So if “Multi” means many… then “Omni” must mean ‘all’ right? And by this extrapolation… “Omni channel” must mean all channels to sale. Which doesn’t make much sense if you think about it, since:

1.       Not every channel suits every product or customer (either for influence or transactions)

2.       Telephone is a sales channel that a lot of retailers tried, but now most have given up on

I think that the word "Omnichannel" has just been thrown into various conversations and white papers by solution providers looking to distinguish themselves from others in the market merely offering ‘multi-channel’… and that’s just hype for its own sake!

Still, it could be worse… I recently heard someone say “there is no channel”, which is either a Buddhist/Matrix reference or a way to further differentiate themselves from the growning Omnichannel mob.

Multi-channel digital attribution – what's next?

If you had read the recent eConsultancy report called‘Making Sense of Marketing Attribution’, you would know that the majority of websites are either not carry out any form of attribution or are still apply a last click approach. In this report the client-side marketers responding said that only26% were doing marketing attribution beyond last click … where the last channel used gains all the credit for the acquisition.

The online sector has been gradually moving towards digital multi-channel attribution, although it is still early days. The aim of these efforts is to understand the different online channels or touch points used by customers in their online paths to conversion on eCommerce sites, but:

• There is still little maturity of the attribution market, meaning there are several bespoke offerings and no real common standards between suppliers

•  The current attribution methods used are basic in their mathematical modelling

•  They are online-only, with no consideration for other non-digital channels (e.g. TV or outdoor)

In my experience, there is very little being done to look at the bigger picture that appropriately considers not just the journey and interactions across the disparate online channels, but also the offline ones…and it is here I think there is an opportunity.

I really think that businesses and their agencies need to move away from single channels of data (e.g. website analytics. TV viewing figures, etc.) and also beyond the basic online only attribution models. They need to understand the entire user journey that leads not just to a transaction, but to a longer-term relationship. Only then can business truly understand the influence that different devices, channels, proportional activity and other factors (such a peer recommendations) have on purchasing and subsequent behaviour.

Research online, purchase offline - don't miss out

ROPO is a term introduced by Google some while back to reflect the cross channel habits of today's modern shoppers who research online and then go on to purchase offline.


This is often the unmeasured factor in eCommerce sales, where the online store has actually contributed to an in-store sale by helping the user view the product online (e.g. see the button detail of a jacket, view the specifications of a computer component or read the details of a hotel or resort) before a customer then wanders into a physical location and hands over money to buy the actual goods. 


This shouldn't be confused with the other multi-channel functionality such as: 
click & collect (view, select & pay for your products online, collect in-store)
click & reserve (view & select your products online, pay & collect in-store)


So how do you, as an online marketer help, in this cross-channel transaction? Here's some thoughts:


1. Provide every possible means on your site to help the user record and remember the product they have chosen. This especially means making that 'Print' button easy to find (especially when the item you are displaying online is out of stock).
It is worth noting that some online stores do not include an on-site option to print out the product detail page, instead relying on the browser print function. I'm not a great believer in this, as over time most of the browser companies have done their utmost to hide the print function behind hard-to-find menu options.


2. Make sure your site visitor knows where your stores are!
Simple I know, but assuming you don't yet have the full multi-channel capability to inform your visitor of the exact stock position of each store, make sure the links to your store finder tool is easy to find.
Note: Whilst on this subject, PLEASE make sure the phone numbers of each store are accurate and clearly displayed too.


Furthermore with the increased adoption of mobile / smartphone usage, users aren't just researching online at home.... they are researching all the time online, including in-store! Yup, they are quite possibly browsing your mobile site, app or maybe just your main site in a smartphone whilst wandering around your premises.


John Lewis identified this issue last year and announced their plans for in-sore WiFi in October:
Here's what they said about this:
"More than 60 per cent of John Lewis customers research products online before visiting a shop to make a purchase and in-store Wi-Fi access allows them to continue and complete that journey, accessing product information and viewing ratings and reviews to influence their purchase."
http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/media/press/y2011/press-release-21-october-2011-john-lewis-commits-to-free-wifi-in-all-its-shops.html 


With the Multi-channel & eCommerce landscape becoming more competitive all the time, it will be increasingly hard to ignore ROPO as a factor that contributes to sales.

Email the key to Multi-channel retail

I've been reading about a new technology that emails your shop receipt to you when you've made a store transaction. This functionality (called Yreceipt) basically automates the process for retailers and takes the customer one step closer to a paperless shopping experience.

But in my opinion it also provides one very important function to the seller.... it helps join up the multi-channel picture for stores, by getting that one piece of data that marries the store purchase with online cuistomer transactions with any digital marketing preferences.... their email address.
This isnt exactly ground-breaking stuff, but getting a customer's usual email address when they are in the store (and yes, I'm well aware that we all have several these days) means you not only know if they've purchased at your online shop, but if they've signed up or opted out of your bulletins. You can then link the in-store purchase to this account or even reactivate them for subsequent email marketing.

Surely by linking till systems with the ecommerce database, any serious retailer can then make the shopping experience more favourable for the customer (by providing loyalty discounts & other incentives, proving an online way for them to see their entire purchasing history and then delivering added value such as emailing receipts to them)?

Multi-Channel competency and innovation

Over the last few months I've been speaking to clients about two different principle facets of Multi-Channel retailing:

1. Continue to improve what you're doing
2. Find new ways to do what you're doing

This came to a head a week or so ago when I saw Sir Terry Leahy, the former CEO of Tesco, present on future global trends. As he talked, I was struck by one key phrase he quoted.

"Don't just do things better. Do better things"

And in an instant I had the key way to integrate my two disparate facets (Thanks Sir Terry!)So here's my presentation, which brings together my current thoughts on this subject. It's not complete, in fact it is a long way from it.... but I'm putting it up to collective scrutiny, with the aim of getting your feedback to develop it further.Multi-Channel Innovation & Competence

View more PowerPoint from Hayden Sutherland

A Multi-Channel Future - are you in denial?

If you work in retail these days you have to get used to a customer who is increasingly tech-savvy and multi-channel minded.

Gone are the old days where stores would offer a 'price matching guarantee' to anyone who found the same product only in a competing branch nearby or glossy catalogue. Now they have to offer the same deal to any reputable online source too or face some pretty strong criticism (usually on social media networks Luke Twitter or in blogs).

And its not just tightly-clasped black & white printouts that nowadays get shown to store staff to price match. Its now incredibly easy to take a picture with your smartphone camera, submit the image to a site or application and get an almost instant price from a number of highly-competitive online retailers.
Note: If you haven't tried it already, Amazon's iPhone app does exactly this.

In my opinion some retailers are most definitely still in denial about the whole multi-channel approach. They don't want to join up the sales channels in an effort to win the sale and their store staff on commission are not encouraged to tell customers that the same product is not out of stock on the company website.
And why should they? Unless there is some way of attributing an online sale to the physical visit, then there's no value in them giving the company website address. To them they might as well tell the potential customer to go next door to the competition....for all the financial good it will do them.

But is doesn't have to be like that...... Does it?

When did eCommerce become Multi-Channel retailing?

If you’re working in and amongst the eCommerce industry in the UK, like me you’ve probably noticed the change in language over the last few years, from pure-play Internet retailing to Multi-Channel (with or without the hyphen) retailing.

The move to multi-channel was also helped by a transition phase sometimes called “Bricks & clicks”. This was where retailers with a physical presence created and consequently optimised their online sales presence. But now Multi-Channel is a discipline that encompasses: marketing, technology, operations and merchandising across website, catalogue*, in-store (kiosk anyone?) and mobile platforms. The online shop has now just become another sales and servicing channel for all sorts of companies.
*Yes, I have included catalogue as part of the multi-channel mix, as there is a lot of integration possible between online sales, in-store and even mobile. [But perhaps that’s the topic for another posting].

However, the most important thing that multi-channel retailing is (and needs to maintain) is flexibility. Not just in its understanding of new and changing platforms and processes, but in its adoption and implementation of increasingly fragmented technologies and devices. Furthermore the principle offline and online drivers of customer: (building) confidence, (providing) trust and (maintaining) loyalty now need to be implemented across these channels in an integrated and thought-out way, creating a joined-up brand experience regardless of where the customer is and what device they are using.

So to answer my initial question of when it became multi-channel…. I would have to state that for most retailers the delivery of a successful ecommerce operation was not the end-game, but just another step along the path to multi-channel success. Wasn’t there always going to be a natural evolution to providing numerous sales platforms to the same person regardless of device or location?

Or put another way… if the customer wants to buy something, shouldn’t they be offered this facility wherever and whenever they want?